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lmSSACHUS:^TS—lIDBUgBEX COUfTYl * « **. From clarence S. Brigham, American Antiquarian Society,
Worcester, Mass. from The WeXXesXey Townsman,larch. 1930.
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Secret funnel Discovered
On the eve of the iB^ssaehusetts Bay Tercentenary eeXebration and the observance of the 150th anniversary of the founding of ^tick* which wiIX take place next year,^ an historie<3^^^^ **^® unearthed recently on the fom^r Walcott estate, at 80 West CentraX Street.
A bricked-up subcellar passage, identified as a depot on the *imderground railway*" of fugitive slave days, was uncovered in demolishing the house built in X853, by ^- ward V/alcott, known as *'^Squiret" and leader of the aboX- itionist cause in Hatick.
For two generations the secret of the passage had been locked up as tight as in the days when Squire Walcott was feeding fleeing i|#^t#^# colored vmn in his back ¦ kitchen, hiding them throu^ the day and sending them on by night to the next refuge station on the underground Ijoute to free Canada.
m*a* J. D. ISRcewan, antique collector arid local historian, notified iars. OayXe T» Forbush, granddaughter of the Abolitionist*
Mrs. Forbiish recalled that her father, the late John W» Walcott, son of the AboXitionist, had told Uer hew the chiXdren in the old houe^e had often come down to break¬ fast to find 8t3?ange black ^ees in the back kitchen* They had been cautioned to say nothing about it. A fug¬ itive negro was as unconstitutional in.Hatick in the X850*s as a stiXl would be today and far more unpopular With the "iaw-and-order" groups*
iirs. Forbush and her husband drove to the ruins of her grandfather's old hoxiset where the surrounding land is being graded, fhey saw, in the eeXXar*feoXe, the open*- ing of one ^t^ of a brick passage that had been/hidden by two great sXabs of slate. A amn could just orawX into it. One had crawled in for 20 feet before lieeting anf
^^®^W:^TS?s'band was akepticaX. He thought it might as well Imve been a cold-air shaft.
**Xf iBy father were only alive,** said Mrs. Forh^l8h• He died last year aged 84. He had not known of %h& ^ existence of a tum^X only that his father's house was one of the depots ## on the "underground railway** from the southern swamps to the Canadian border.
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lmSSACHUS:^TS—lIDBUgBEX COUfTYl * « **. From clarence S. Brigham, American Antiquarian Society,
Worcester, Mass. from The WeXXesXey Townsman,larch. 1930.
/
Secret funnel Discovered
On the eve of the iB^ssaehusetts Bay Tercentenary eeXebration and the observance of the 150th anniversary of the founding of ^tick* which wiIX take place next year,^ an historie<3^^^^ **^® unearthed recently on the fom^r Walcott estate, at 80 West CentraX Street.
A bricked-up subcellar passage, identified as a depot on the *imderground railway*" of fugitive slave days, was uncovered in demolishing the house built in X853, by ^- ward V/alcott, known as *'^Squiret" and leader of the aboX- itionist cause in Hatick.
For two generations the secret of the passage had been locked up as tight as in the days when Squire Walcott was feeding fleeing i|#^t#^# colored vmn in his back ¦ kitchen, hiding them throu^ the day and sending them on by night to the next refuge station on the underground Ijoute to free Canada.
m*a* J. D. ISRcewan, antique collector arid local historian, notified iars. OayXe T» Forbush, granddaughter of the Abolitionist*
Mrs. Forbiish recalled that her father, the late John W» Walcott, son of the AboXitionist, had told Uer hew the chiXdren in the old houe^e had often come down to break¬ fast to find 8t3?ange black ^ees in the back kitchen* They had been cautioned to say nothing about it. A fug¬ itive negro was as unconstitutional in.Hatick in the X850*s as a stiXl would be today and far more unpopular With the "iaw-and-order" groups*
iirs. Forbush and her husband drove to the ruins of her grandfather's old hoxiset where the surrounding land is being graded, fhey saw, in the eeXXar*feoXe, the open*- ing of one ^t^ of a brick passage that had been/hidden by two great sXabs of slate. A amn could just orawX into it. One had crawled in for 20 feet before lieeting anf
^^®^W:^TS?s'band was akepticaX. He thought it might as well Imve been a cold-air shaft.
**Xf iBy father were only alive,** said Mrs. Forh^l8h• He died last year aged 84. He had not known of %h& ^ existence of a tum^X only that his father's house was one of the depots ## on the "underground railway** from the southern swamps to the Canadian border.
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